Nasty smell off fermenting cider

[Roadie]

Fermenting my first batch of cider so didn't really know what to expect. 5 gallons in a 6.5 carboy in fermentation fridge sitting next to a Pale Ale in a 6.5 at 65 degrees. The pale ale went into fridge last Sunday and the cider went in on Tuesday. The beer was smelling great but is now overpowered by the nasty smell coming off the cider.

I got the pasteurized cider from a local orchard and it was still warm so very fresh. No preservatives. The cider was opaque with the usual brown cider color. SG was 1.045. Didn't add anything other than some pectic enzyme and within a hour or so when I checked on it about 1" - 2" of lees were at the bottom of the carboy, the cider was a translucent straw color. I did not add any yeast nutrients. Pitched the yeast (Wyeast - Sweet White) that night and have been checking on it every morning. It has remained at exactly 65 degrees. No smells from the cider until this morning and it's nasty; kind of a sulfury/sour smell. The color has changed to a solid yellow and it's opaque again which is a real change from the last couple days when I could see through it. This concerns me as I wanted to end up with a very clear cider.

Does all this sound normal?

 

[Melana]

Sounds about right to me. Ride it out!

 

[Roadie]

Sounds about right to me. Ride it out!

Thanks. I was unsure if I should rack it to a new carboy with yeast nutrient. The smell isn't horrible YET. Would I have avoided this issue if I had used yeast nutrient? Too late to add it now?

 

[Rockn_M]

.

 

[bernardsmith]

sulfur smells? Like matches or rotten eggs? If the latter then your yeast has been stressed and you may need to rack it through or onto copper bind the hydrogen sulfide. A smell of burnt matches is due to mercaptans and - my knowledge here is very limited - I think that mercaptans are a result of the stressed yeasts producing hydrogen sulfide (your rotten eggs ) that has not been dealt with quickly enough. The cure - I believe - is a) to whip lots of air into the carboy and b) rack the cider through or onto copper wire wool (pot scrubbing wool) . There are chemicals that you can get from your LHBS but I am not sure what they are called (Redules or something like that)

 

[phug]

Don't worry about the orange colour.

See this post from CvilleKevin

Here is a picture of the York and Fuji batches, a couple of weeks after pressing. They started out as a dark chocolate brown color, but by the time of the photo the fermentation had lightened them up considerably

On the left back wall, next to the fridge, are five batches that were made from a mix of Staymans and Romes. The juice was pressed on November 24 and not very tart, but had an interesting spicy taste. Starting SG was 1.064! pH 3.8. I added half the recommended dose of k-meta to these (except for the wild batch) - 1/8 tsp in 6 gallons. As you can see, they did not clear up nearly as much as the other batches during cold crashing and were still dropping a lot of sediment in the secondaries. Perhaps they would have cleared eventually, but they tasted really good and so we drank ‘em cloudy. They are from left to right:

Wild yeast, no extra sugar. Crashed at 1.014. This was my first attempt at doing a wild fermented keg batch and overall one of the best wild batches I did this year. Even though the final SG was on the high side, it tasted dry with a nice, but not overwhelming sour note and a nice body and finish

S04 ale yeast, with 2lbs of wildflower honey to boost SG to 1.072. Crashed at 1.012. This was very, very good. I didn’t keg it until two months after crashing, by which time SG had dropped to 1.010. The honey gave it a nice smell and body, but not overpowering in the taste.

S04 ale yeast, with no additional sugar or honey. Crashed at 1.010. It had just a bit of the k-meta tang right after crashing, but it faded within a month. By the time I kegged it, two months later, it was outstanding. This was my favorite of the five Stayman/Rome batches.

US05 ale yeast, with no additional sugar or honey. Crashed at 1.006. The SG dropped a little more over the next two months to 1.004 by the time I kegged it. Nice and dry but has a bit of a caramel smell that hasn’t dissipated yet, so it’s the only keg of this batch which hasn’t been consumed yet. I’ve gotten this smell before and it usually goes away after a couple of months.

S04 ale yeast, with with 2lbs of clover honey to boost SG to 1.072. Crashed at 1.010, kegged a couple months later. Also very good. Not quite as good as the wildflower honey IMHO, but no complaints.

I saved two liters of each of these so I can check out how they hold up with aging

That orange colour is from all the yeast in suspension actively fermenting.

 

[MindenMan]

Yeast energizer is a combination of a few different things, usually including DAP. If you have baker's yeast in the house, add it to some apple juice, boil for 5 minutes or so, let cool and pitch. I just made a high gravity batch of Peach Cider, and added 1 tsp baker's yeast, 1 tsp of DAP, and 1 tsp of Fermaid K, that was boiled in a small amount of water. I let it cool before adding, and very shortly thereafter, CO2 was being made and the first fermentation was done in four or five days. I usually takes two weeks or so. I say the first fermentation, because the bubbles were not visible to the eye, I added one twelve ounce can of apple juice concentrate, and one pint of water, and within a couple of hours, fermentation was visible. I am going through all this boring detail, because I hope you don't do like I did, and not believe what a giant help nutrients would be. Never again without for beer and cider.

 

[podz]

Thanks. I was unsure if I should rack it to a new carboy with yeast nutrient. The smell isn't horrible YET. Would I have avoided this issue if I had used yeast nutrient? Too late to add it now?

Yes, you would have avoided this by using nutrient.

Not too late to add it now. Without it, fermentation might drag on for 6 weeks of stinking. With it, no stink and finished in a week.

 

[Roadie]

I used my thief to withdrawal some cider yesterday afternoon, mixed it with yeast nutrient and put it back into the carboy. This morning there was a sweet smell... no more sulphur!

 

[JonM]

The sulfury smell is affectionately known as "rhino farts." My basement is full of 'em right now. It goes away in a couple days.